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Elias Has Time for Another Team, Unicef

NEWARK — Almost three years have passed since Devils forward Patrik Elias returned to hockey from a long bout with Hepatitis A, a disease of the liver that hospitalized him and changed his perspective on nearly everything.

Elias, 32, is playing as well as ever, helping the Devils (19-10-3) withstand a serious elbow injury to goaltender Martin Brodeur, who is expected to be out until at least March. Elias had three goals and five assists in four games last week.

“I think he’s back having fun playing again,” Jamie Langenbrunner, who replaced Elias as the Devils’ captain, said Tuesday before the Devils fell to the Boston Bruins, 2-0, at Prudential Center. “He’s really relaxed, like the weight of the world is off his shoulders, and he’s gotten back to the way he knows how to play.”

Elias said that may be because hockey, though still important, now takes up a smaller part of his life. He is hoping to start a family with his wife, Petra Volakova, and he has become more deeply involved with Unicef.

“You always go through ups and downs in your regular life, in everything you do,” Elias said. “You have to have everything working in your favor to have things happening. And you just have to enjoy it. When the bad days come, you have to keep moving on.”

Elias, a native of the Czech Republic, does not think he would have become involved with Unicef had he not contracted Hepatitis A while briefly playing professionally in Russia during the 2004-5 N.H.L. lockout.

Volakova, then his fiancée, was a Czech television personality. Among her guests was Pavla Gomba, the head of Unicef in the Czech Republic, who talked about a project in which schoolchildren made dolls to raise money for the organization.

Photo

With 16 goals and 21 assists in his first 32 games, Patrik Elias is on pace to exceed his production in any of the last three seasons. Credit
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Elias learned that the money would buy vaccines for children in Africa to combat Hepatitis A, among other deadly diseases. “If I was vaccinated I wouldn’t have contracted hepatitis, so it obviously connected,” Elias said.

Elias became a good-will ambassador for Unicef in 2006, at about the time that Claude Julien, the team’s new coach, named him captain. Julien was fired before the end of the season, and the new coach did not retain Elias as captain.

The new coach, Brent Sutter, named Langenbrunner captain last December. Elias played in all 82 games, but the Devils were ousted from the playoffs by the Rangers in the first round, and the season was regarded as a learning experience.

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Before training camp, Elias traveled to Belize with his wife and Gomba. About 25 percent of the money that Unicef raises in the Czech Republic, he said, goes to Belize. He played soccer and handed out Devils caps. A documentary was filmed.

Hockey is, in many ways, a release. The Devils lost four straight games after Brodeur was injured, falling to 7-7-2, but Elias has helped them win 12 of the next 16 games.

Elias has been superb, particularly on the power play. The Devils scored seven goals with a man advantage in the last seven games. Elias had a total of three power-play goals in victories over Ottawa and Philadelphia.

“Here in the last six weeks, he’s taken his game to a different level — one you like to see and one that he’s been capable of doing,” Sutter said.

Elias became a full-time N.H.L. player 11 years ago and seems to realize that he might not be around much longer. But he plans to enjoy the good times and will try to make the most of what he has been handed.

“Obviously, the older you get, you realize that there are other things in life besides playing hockey,” he said. “You have those everyday worries that we all think about too much.”

SLAP SHOTS

Milan Lucic had the winning goal and David Krejci put the game away with an empty-netter at 19 minutes 12 seconds of the third period for the Bruins. Devils goalie Scott Clemmensen stopped 22 of 23 shots.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: Elias Has Time for Another Team, Unicef. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe